1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to personal decorating and in particular relates to a method and apparatus for forming an image on the nail of a user.
2. Description of Related Art
In personal fashion, many users enjoy applying colors and images to their nails for decorative effect. In particular, the application of images to the nails of a user provides a pleasing visual appearance. Conventionally, such images may be applied to the user's nail through painting freehand however it will be appreciated that such images require great skill to apply and have limited detail and consistency which may be applied. Additionally, images may be formed on the nail by applying a sticker or the like having the desired image. Disadvantageously, such stickers will form a raised image on the nail resulting in a uneven finish and are also limited to the images and colors published and available for purchase.
To address these deficiencies, the use of image stampers has been adopted whereby an image is formed on a plate using paint of a desired color. Thereafter a rubber stamp is utilized to pick up and transfer the image from the plate to the nail. A disadvantage of conventional stampers is that they block the image which the user is attempting to pick up thereby making precise placement of the image difficult. This is especially difficult in circumstances where a user wishes to form an image of multiple colors. In these circumstances, a user would commonly form each part of the image which is to be formed from a particular color as a separate image part. The stamper would then be used to transfer each image part to a common composite image on a transfer plate or the like. This allows the user to verify alignment of the image parts before transfer to the user's nail or start over if the image parts do not sufficiently align. It will be appreciated that such process may be time consuming and difficult to complete for detailed images having many colors.